Celestron Regal M2 (80 or 100) vs Vortex Razor Gen1? (1 Viewer)

[dmahoney]

Hi. I was debating on getting a spotting scope. Was wondering if anyone had experiences with or had ever done a comparison of these 2? This would primarily be for birding in the Rocky Mountains and the prairie, but also general wildlife viewing and possibly some (very) amateur-ish astronomy.

 

[HasseBF]

Hi, I have the Regal 80 mm and my brother have the Razor gen 1 85 mm. With the original zoom eyepiece on the Regal the Razor is clearly better, especially at high magnifications. With the Baader Hyperion zoom IV (which I bought after using the Regal for awhile and not being fully content with the sharpness at high magnification) the difference between the two scopes is really small. The Razor is still a little ahead in sharpness at high magnification but other than that there is in my eyes nothing than a slight brightness advantage for the Razor due to the bigger lens diameter.

 

[henry link]

Both of these scopes will be subject to enough sample variation to overwhelm any design differences. I tested a Vortex Razor Gen1 some years ago that was so poor no one would want it. I haven't seen the Celestron, but I doubt that it's made any better than the Vortex. When it comes to scopes you need to try the exact unit you're going to buy and make sure it can be returned for a refund.

The eyepiece supplied with the Vortex is a very nice clone of the Swarovski 20-60X zoom, but that won't help if the scope itself has high aberrations. The Baader Hyperion is a bit better eyepiece than the Vortex clone, but once again it can't save an optically poor scope body.

 

[dmahoney]

Thanks for the feedback. I didn't realize QA/QC could be that spotty. Would a Pentax PF-80 or an Opticron be a better or safer choice? A bit above what I was hoping to budget.

 

[Binastro]

Star tests and resolution tests would show how good a particular sample performs.

Regards,
B.